We live in interesting times and nowhere is that illustrated more clearly than in the current election cycle… Trump? A socialist? A Tea Party candidate? Hillary? My mind is not officially blown… but this article tells me I need to buckle in. In fact we all do. All of the stuff I mention above is a product of forces that have been at work since the 1940s. There’s another article (I’ll see if I can find it) that talks about how the post-war wealth produced societal changes that gave rise to the modern education system. The modern education system has been slowly evolving into a purely secular machine that has gradually moved the prevailing systems of thoughts away from the Judaeo-Christian ethic. Good or bad what we see today is a result of that.

What’s coming will evolve a little more rapidly but it will still take some time… I really can’t imagine what this country will look like in the next 30 to 40 years if, Lord willing, I live that long. This morning I read an article that talks about the pending changes that will shape economics and society in a big way. The workforce will change and it will be pretty wide-sweeping. I don’t have enough of a grasp of the situation to declare how different it will be but I wonder if the biggest change will be our cultural dependency on a centralized government. The groundwork is already lain… I don’t know if a socialist will win this election but it’s inevitable. And I think the changes that are coming will only further increase social-centrism in American culture. The question is how we’ll traverse that process – it’s already upon us.

For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. — Philippians 1:29

It is important that we understand the role suffering and pain plays in our experience. In the book of Hebrews were are instructed to not resist discipline because it produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness. In the book of Romans we are told that all things work together for good to those who love God – that’s written in context of the larger message of God’s sovereignty in our experience. You see pain and suffering is inevitable and through it we are perfected. It shapes us into stronger, as well as more malleable people. It brings us closer to God and enables us to love others more deeply… if we’ll let it.

Do not resent pain or suffering. It is possible to find a place of peace in the midst of it and God promises that He will turn it for good.